(Author's POV)
Phineas let a beat pass before he said, "I want to come back to what I proposed three days ago."
Aurora looked at him.
"Today didn't change anything about the situation," he said. "If anything, it clarifies it. You've seen what I'm working with. There's no threat here - not in the way you might be thinking. But I do need a marriage, and the reasons for that haven't changed."
He said it the same way he said most things - flat, direct, no particular effort to soften it.
Aurora was quiet for a moment. The boat drifted slightly. She straightened the hem of her jacket.
(Aurora's POV)
I listened to him and felt something shift, somewhere I didn't want it to.
He was right that the conditions were good. He was right that the arrangement made sense. I could see the logic of i
